The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-14
THE :[[I &. LUMBER INDU sTRY.
THE WORK DONE IN A NORTH
WESTERN LOGGING CAMP.
The Hardy Losgers-A Camps Out
fit-Amusemcnts of the Mcn-The
Work They Do.

fit-Amusemcnts Of the Mcn-The
Work They Do.
The logging crews scattered through
the numbering camps of the Northwest
are more distinctively class than can be
found elsewhere on the continent. Any
thing will do for cowboy or miner,
but it takes man of great strength and
endurance to make typical logger. If
I wanted to raise an army of ten thou
sand men who would rather fight than
run, and who would not care to cat until
they had flogged the enemy, l would
take them from the forests rather than
from the plains or the mines. Yet in
many ways these "boys'' of the camps
are as irregular in their habits as are
those of the corral. For fifty years an
army of these men have been earning
and receiving high wages for their work,
and yet it is safe to say that not one in
twenty of them has ever been benefited
by his labor. They 60 into camp often
in the early autumn, and submit to en-
forced temperance until spring, and come
ou. with several hundred dollars each.
They "strike" town, aud in q night, o
day, or week, the last dollar has
dropped into the hands of some rum
seller OF the keeper of some vile resort,
and they wander off to find something
to do that will bring them living until
they go into camp again.
The logging camp is world in itself.
It varies in size with the number of men
to be kept, and that depends upon the
quantity of timber to be cut in season.
In locating camp, the object is to get
as near to the work as possible, and yet
secure water and desirable site. That
done, the ground is cleared and the long
trunks notched and laid in walls that are
rooted with rough boards that are in
turn covered with tarred paper. The
several buildings are ''the mems camp"
"the kitchen, ""the Office, 1.-THE stable"
"the granary," and "the shop" in which
the blacksmith and the carpenter look
after the horses feet, cant hooks, peevies,
sleighs, drags, swamp hooks, chains, and
whippletrees. In the center of the mems
camp stands huge stove; overhead
hang poles, across which the men throw
their wet socks and mittens to dry;
around the walls are the "bunks," made
of rough boards, and arranged in tiers
two or three deep, and in corner con-
venient to the door is the wood-pile. In
this camp, supper over and the pipes all
in bloom, may be seen the romance of
the logger's life. As rule. these men
have had little or no education. The
intellect of the place is sharpencd only in
the direction of inventing new words,
phrases, and "drives" that shall win ap-
plause and secure q laugh on some VIC
tim. When chatting pals, out comes
violin, flute, or mouth.organ, or all of
them, and there is music and dancing,
games, sparring, and the noisest, rough
est, but best-natured fun ever found
among unculturcd men, until the hour
arrives when the lights must go out.
The first work is making "skidways,"
on which the logs are to be piled for
loading upon cars or sleighs. If the logs
are to be ''banked" by teams, crew of
men begin, when camp opens in Sep
tember, to make the road from camp to
river This is a work that requires skill,
as hills must be avoided, and as nearly
as possible dead level maintained. The
work must be finished in time for the
frost to get its proper work done in solid
flying the bottom, especially in swampy
lands, of which there are many to cross.
When snow falls it is tramped and
sprinkled with water, until the bed has
become mass of ice. That is q good
road. Then comes the hauling, which
is the most dangerous part of the work.
Where the logs are hauled by trains and
locomotives all the old work of road
making and teaming is avoided. But
the advent of the locomotive and the
logging railroad in the forests has de-
stroyed much of the romance of the life
and work. 1t has produced much the
same effect as would follow the abandon
ment of their old covered wagons,
horses, and camp-fres by the gypies for the
modern method of travelling by special
train. But so 1t must be. AS the timber
line retreats from the streams the expense
of banking increases, and so railroads
come in as the natural solution Of that
problem. Then also forest fires are annu-
ally killing more or less pine that must
be cut at once in order to saveit. Where
there are railroads, such burned timber
may be delivered at will, and cut up
almost before it has grown cold. In
lower Michigan, where the logging rail
road is most to be found, about one-third
of the log product of 1856 was hauled by
engines. The quantity moved by rail in
1887 is already far in excess of last years
total.
The pine lumber product of Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1886 was, in
round numbers, 1000, 600, 900 feet. To
obtains that lumber the pine timber was
logged clean from 7s0 square miles of
forest. The live pine still standing in
these three states is estimated at l2O,-
900, 900, 600 feet, worth $500, 600, 600 |
now. In twenty years the half, or more,
will have been cut, but the remainder
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